1. Field of Invention
The invention is related to analyzing a plurality of information sources having different formats. More particularly, the invention is related to systems and methods that parse the plurality of information sources into a common format.
2. Description of Related Art
Data that is analyzed by a user often arrives from various sources in various forms and in massive amounts. Typically, users struggle with the problem of getting the proper amount of the proper pieces of the desired data into the proper format for a particular software application. To overcome this problem, users spend a substantial amount of time finding the desired data, and then formatting the data for a particular software application. This problem is referred to hereinafter as the data ingest problem.
One of the most significant problems with the data ingest problem is identifying the desired data and then converting the desired data into a format that can be imported to the appropriate software application. For example, many software applications used in scientific and business settings can import certain types of formatted data automatically. However, substantially similar data, which is not formatted properly must be reformatted for importing into the desired software application. This process of reformatting is an expensive process that occupies the user's time and demands a software programmer's expertise.
Typical solutions for the data ingest problem are often hard coded for a single purpose and there is no reusability of the software. Additionally, slight variation in data can cause significant problems to solutions that are hard coded for a single purpose. In many instances commercial parsing software for reformatting data does not exist. Thus, the burden is on the user to re-format the desired data. Alternatively, the user may hire a programmer to generate or modify software that can reformat the desired data. Both of these solutions are relatively expensive because they take time to implement and require user resources, require developer time, and give the user a solution, which the user can not modify.